Who Says You Have To Leave To Have An Adventure?

Two blog posts in one week??? Who are you and what have you done with the real Gina? I know, I know...I'm awful with actually posting here, but I'm hoping to get better. I've even got plans for at least one more post that may or may not be written in the next few days.

Anyway, today I thought I'd share my little adventure this afternoon. Don't worry, it's completely okay to laugh at my stupidity. I flip-flopped between wanting to burst out laughing and feeling like the tears might start flowing. So here goes:

The day started out like pretty much any other day, except for the fact that it had snowed a few inches so the roads had a tendency to be fairly slick. But I managed to arrive at my destination not too long after I was supposed to be there. I pulled into my usual parking spot, but because of some snow that hadn't quite been plowed, I misjudged the location of the curb. Not wanting to be that close, I backed up and tried to straighten myself out. Well, that didn't really work, so I tried again. Unfortunately, this time, my car didn't budge. Oh well, I thought to myself. Hopefully the snow/ice will melt enough that I won't have a problem getting out of my parking spot.

Well, imagine my frustration when, at shortly after 4 pm this afternoon, my car still did not and would not budge. I keep a container of kitty litter in my trunk as I had been told years earlier that it's really good for traction in case you ever get stuck (this is completely false, and when it gets saturated, looks less like kitty litter and more like kitty regurgitation...anyone need half a container of unused kitty litter for Fluffy? It's yours!).

Luckily for me, my coworker (we call her Midge) who had left the same time as me, drove by and saw my unfortunate situation. She stopped her car to watch the circus of me trying to get my unstuck. She even made an effort to try to push my car out of the ice and sludge. And then I had my bright idea: I'll put my car in neutral, and both of us can push it! Neutral: go! And then I closed the door. "No, you have to leave it open, see?" Midge said as she grabbed the door handle...but the door wouldn't open. Apparently, I had forgotten the small detail that when I put my car in gear, the doors lock. So now my car is A. locked, B. stuck, C. running, oh...and D. almost out of gas. Great.

Then I remembered something: (at the risk of undesirable events taking place...) One of my windows is not functioning properly and is cracked open a bit. Perfect! I should be able to pull it down with not much effort, and I can get into my car, and that'll be one less problem. Pull, pull, pull...think, think, think...pull, pull, pull....post on Facebook in case someone has a more brilliant idea than me...pull, pull, pull...crap, that didn't work...pull, pull, pull...at some point, this has to work, right?...pull, pull, pull. In the meantime, Midge called our supervisor to see if someone there had, with any luck, a wire hanger. So we waited and waited, and hopped into Midge's warm car, and waited some more, and then out came another co-worker with two wooden rulers taped together with the taped ends wrapped in paper and a binder clip taped to the end. So I stuck one of the rulers through the slightly open window and...well, one of the rulers is now in my backseat. Someone, remind me to return it to her, please. And that is how one idea, which was great in theory, failed miserably.

Just as co-worker was headed to her car to see if she possibly had anything that might help, she passed three of the guys on the IT team. Great, as if I didn't feel stupid enough for getting stuck in the snow and locking myself out of my running car...Their suggestion? Call campus security. Sigh. Alright, guess we'll give that a try. Now, what's the phone number? Midge and I both went on a search (using our phones, of course) for the number. Finally, I found it and had to swallow my pride as I explained my dilemma to the guy on the other end of the line. Luckily, he didn't ridicule me for my brainless act(s) (let's be honest, they probably encounter this type of thing all the time, year round...maybe not getting stuck in the snow, but...) and let me know that someone should be contacting me within 5-10 minutes. Sure enough, I received a call so that I could give the security officer my exact location.

Within minutes (MINUTES!!!) of the security officer arriving, he had my front driver's side window rolled down. "There you go, have a nice day." No, wait! My car's stuck, too! This was my original problem, and I was NOT letting him get away without fixing this for me, too! I know, I know...sometimes I can be so needy. So he called for backup because this was not going to be remedied without a little extra help, and then I told him why I was not surprised that I was stuck.

It seams like at least once a year for the past five years, I have gotten myself stuck in the snow. Mostly, it was when I was backing out of a driveway and just didn't go fast enough. And then I would learn from that so it was much less likely that I would let that happen again. Until the next year. Well, apparently I have a hard time shutting down illogical thoughts in my brain and figured that since we've had a fairly mild winter this year with only a few snowstorms with a majority of the snow melting within a day or so, this would be the year that I did not get stuck. And I started getting a little confident about that because it's now March. Spring (and warmer weather) should be coming soon, right? Right.

Anyway, I explained to him that without fail, I get stuck in the snow once a year. Then I told him I even tried kitty litter for traction, but obviously, that didn't help. He walked over to his truck and pulled a bag of bright blue rock salt out of the back, and started throwing the stuff both in front of and behind my front tires. Then he started directing me to push on the gas while turning the steering wheel either direction. Well, whaddaya know??? TRACTION!!! Keep going, keep going....Success! All four tires solidly on pavement! And then off I was to make the final rescue of my poor car: fill it with gas before it dies a sad and pathetic death.

Moral of the story: So many options. Don't assume that if something that tends to happen annually hasn't occurred yet, you're home free? Don't pull into the parking spot so close to the curb when snow is involved? Don't leave your keys in the ignition (or anywhere else in the car) when your car is in gear or in neutral and then close the door because you will inevitably be locked out? Never trust a Sicilian when death is on the line? (Points to whomever can tell me what that's from) I don't know, you be the judge.

Thanks again to Midge for chilling out with me and witnessing my manifested stupidity and providing a warm place for both of us while we waited for my rescue. And a huge thanks to the security officer for helping me into my car and out of my rut. And thanks to whomever reads this blog post, for hopefully reading this entire story and enjoying at least a chuckle or two.

Time flies...

Wow. Looks like it's been quite a while since I posted last, and it's amazing how much has happened. I'd like to say that Jenny's quilt has been completed, as well as the one for Andrea that I purchased the fabric for, but alas, 'tis not true. And now she's entering the MTC on Wednesday, so it looks like I've got about 18 months to get it finished up. Let's hope I can do that and get Andrea's done as well, and maybe I can get the disappearing 4-patch quilt in black, white and orange for myself finished. Wishful thinking? Maybe. I suppose time will tell. I'll be sure to post when I complete a project.
I also have plans to refurbish a sewing table I purchased at the DI this summer for a whopping $4.00. It opens up on both sides, and there's a big ol' hole in the middle where a sewing machine used to be. I had gone on a search for a piece of wood that I could have cut down to replace the middle section, but I would have had to purchase an entire sheet and have it cut down, and I would have had to take the rest of it home. Not something I wanted to do.
Luckily, there was a man in the lumber section that was buying supplies for himself who had overheard my conversation with the employee at the store who was being quite difficult to deal with. The man said he might have something at his shop that might work for me, and to give him a call a bit later after he'd gotten back to his shop. Sure enough, he had something that would be perfect for my project. He had even cut it down and sanded it for me. I asked him what I owed him for the wood, and he basically said it was a gift. Really? Sweet! Current tally: $4.00!
My next item to replace: hardware. Up until this point, I hadn't really decided exactly what I wanted to do with my sewing table. All I knew was that I wanted it to be functional and cute. So off I trekked to Hobby Lobby where I perused the drawer pulls. I looked and looked, not really finding anything I wanted. And then I saw something that caught my eye: zebra-striped drawer pulls. Oh yeah. And then it all came together. Here's the plan: the table will be black, but when it's closed, it will have a zebra-striped top, with zebra-striped drawer pulls. I'm so ridiculously excited for the finished product! Pictures hopefully to follow soon.

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It...

My materials:

• Fabric
• Thread
• Ribbon

My supplies:

• Sewing Machine
• Scissors
• Pins

My mission:

• To make a wearable Easter skirt in a few hours or less without using a pattern.

Mission: Accomplished

The Cat's Out of the Bag!

Okay, so it's been over a month since I posted a picture of the fabric for my project, so I'm a little slow. But I managed to finish sewing the top of this awesome quilt together and present it to my friend Jenny for her birthday! I would have liked to have the whole thing done, but, well...I didn't. Fail. BUT...She said she really liked it, which is bittersweet for me. I'm so happy that she likes it, but I'm also sad that I'll have to let it go forever once it's finished. I suppose I can see it when I visit her. But first I have to figure out how to back it without having to buy a lot of additional fabric.
I also have a couple of other projects in the works...Okay, the truth is that fabric has been purchased, but has not been cut into yet. I'm making another quilt in some fun colors for another friend (I'll post pictures later since she has probably figured out that she's getting a quilt for her birthday, as well...if not, she knows now!) and once both of these are done, it's a quilt for me! I'm using the same pattern as the one in the picture to the left for both, and I'll let you in on the secret for the color theme for my quilt...the bricks are black and white fabric, and the "neutral" color for the squares is orange. I know, I know...it sounds Halloween-ish, but hopefully it doesn't turn out that way. If it does, oh well. I'm excited to see how it'll turn out. I'm already plotting to bind it in the extra black fabric, and I'll probably back it in orange. As my seester says, it'll probably be so bright it'll keep me up at night, but at least I'll be warm! Hopefully pictures are to come soon.

Surprise!

100_2219 a photo by froggy_miss on Flickr.

I'm super excited about this fabric and what I plan on doing with it. It's a surprise, and the great part about it is that the person it's for probably has no idea whatsoever that it's for them! So I can post pictures all over the place and they'll never know! I'm super excited to sew it up, although I nearly had a panic attack when I started cutting into the fabric. My seester and my mom are the seamstresses of the family. I, unfortunately, did not get the sewing genes. Or if I did, they're stunted. The point is, I don't do nearly as much sewing as either one of them do. But I'm not letting that stop me from making something really cute! Speaking of, I should probably start cutting up the green fabric in the middle of the picture so I can get on with the actual sewing! I'll try to post more when I get more of my project completed.

You Know You Don't Post Enough When...

...You can't remember the URL for your own blog. I had to go to my seester's blog and click on her link for my blog in order to refresh my memory. Okay, everyone, let's all say it together...Gina fails!
Anyway...so I'm in between projects to get done today, so I thought I'd give a bit of an update on what I've been up to lately. Some of it I don't really want to talk about or get into right now, so if you REALLY want to know about that part of my life, feel free to comment with your email address, if I don't already have it. But it's probably not as exciting as I'm sure you're hoping for it to be.
I'm currently working/planning on some Christmas presents for my family. I can't go into the specifics, even though the only presents that I have the ideas for are all for the nieces and nephews. I'm sure that most of them are too young to even care about blogs, especially mine. But for some reason I have this need to keep their present ideas from their parents...with the exception of my seester. I have to run my ideas past somebody, right? Anyway, I'm still trying to come up with some ideas for the adults. That's the tough part.
I've also got a few crafty ideas stirring in my head that I might try to sell at some point, if I can work up the ambition and the supplies. Some of it I already have, and I might just use some other stuff that I had been planning on sending to the D.I. I'm planning on making beaded lanyards (I've got one that I've been using that lots of people have commented on, and I would have posted a picture here, but I accidentally left it at my seester's house after the Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe I'll have to make a stop there in the next few days so I can get it. My niece was having a blast putting it around her neck and talking about how "pitty" it was. I also have an idea for some cute hair clips that should be fairly easy to make. Hopefully I'll be able to make some and post some pictures. But please don't look forward to it, because knowing my history, it'll be several months before anything else gets posted.
I also started last night with my church calling. I'm an indexer, which means I get to pull demographic information from old census and military draft records. It's actually kind of fun, and I already indexed about 170+ names just last night. Anyone can do it, just set up an LDS account and then go to indexing.familysearch.org and sign in! I'm excited to be able to help those that weren't able to hear the gospel before they died. And it's been fun as I've indexed some draft records to see where some of these people were born. So far I've seen names of people that were born in Italy, Poland, Greece, Russia, and Czechoslovakia. There may be more, but that's all I've got right now.
The other thing I need to do that absolutely needs to get done today is to put some music on an iPod for my Andrea friend. Some of my friends (and former roommates) have bestowed upon me the nickname of \m/(Rocker) Gina. I'm their go-to person when they need music for something, or if they heard a song on the radio and only remember part of the lyrics, and they need to know what song it was. I'm even considering buying myself a keytar (which is pretty much a portable keyboard on a guitar strap) and joining a band. I even have a name for said band, thanks to Andrea's mom (Mama Sayre)...Check this out...Rocker Gina and the Gene Pool. Awesome name, I think! What do you think?

Note to Self...

Never say you're going to do something that you know isn't going to happen.

In my last post, I explained my game plan to blog more often. I said that each week, I would try something new and then report back the following week. Four months later, and I'm just now reporting on my Twitter experience. Feel free to award me with a big, fat F.

As far as Twitter goes...the jury is still out. I know, I know, I've been on Twitter for four months already (that's a lot of weeks, by the way), I should have a decent opinion by now. But I don't. So the best thing I can do at this point is to offer a few pros and cons of Twitter.

Pros:

• Instant gratification. It doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing, with just a few clicks on my phone, I can check in on whatever is new with all of the people/entities that I follow. And in some cases, updates are sent to my phone as a text message.
• Fascinating information. One of the entities I follow is full of the most interesting, if useless, facts. Did you know that a chocolate bar has an average of eight insect legs in it? And don't tell me you're surprised by that knowledge. I've never been inside a chocolate factory (although that might be a bit of a dream come true...Love me some chocolate!), but I'm pretty sure there are large vats of chocolate that don't have much of anything covering them...or maybe that's just how I envision factories, thanks to the years of my youth watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
  

Cons:

• Waste of time. While it is interesting to read up on and get updates on everyone that I follow, is it really imperative for me to know that so-and-so is putting out a new album, or that there's a giveaway tomorrow on a radio station program that I don't even get to listen to anymore, or that if you bite down on a Wint-O-Green Life Saver in the dark, you will see sparks? (The last one I already knew, but that one was for all of you who wanted to hear a random fact today) The point is that yes, it's true, my brain is full of trivia that's useful only when playing Cranium and the challenge is to guess what song is being hummed, and I'm such a nerd (particularly when it comes to music) that I know within about a dozen notes that the song is "Material World" by Madonna. Why should I add to the massive amount of useless facts already shoved into my head instead of learning something new that's actually useful?

So after all of that, for now, I remain a Twitterer (if that's even a word). To be honest, I'm mostly a follower because I'm pretty sure there's nobody out there that's that interested in knowing what I had for breakfast yesterday (french toast with a side of bacon) or what I did last Saturday (attended the Scottish Festival and discovered a great Celtic band, the Wicked Tinkers-you should check them out, and if you live near me, let me know if you're interested and I may let you borrow a CD or two so you, too, can marvel at how a band can merge the bagpipes and a didgeridoo and make fantastic, entertaining music).